


The Difference Between Dead and Alive

by Uchiyama (DanelleSepthon)



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Amnesia, At least happy-ish, BAMF Karasuma, BAMF Korosensei, Everyone is kinda badass tbh, Gen, Happy Ending AU, I just really needed a happy ending okay, Light Angst, Resurrection, Super Manga Spoilers, seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-26 14:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6243280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanelleSepthon/pseuds/Uchiyama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven years after the end, there is a beginning. Black and white blends into gray by the command of a merciful god as Life and Death meet together to bring about a change in fate of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

He woke up to the sound of machines buzzing in his ear. There was no particular reason why, but the whirring reminded him of sterile smells and soft black hair. The memory was dull, incomplete, broken, but it was instantaneous and left his mind almost immediately. Once it was gone, he felt a deep, immense sadness for seemingly no reason. 

“My name is Dr. Hotaru Hisakawa,” said a woman in a stark white lab coat standing over him. There was a blue surgical mask over her mouth and stiff metal glasses. Though her hair was dyed blonde, her shaky English and her sharp eyes told him she had to be from the east somewhere, Japanese if he had guess by her accident. He smelled latex and antiseptic, spelling out a hospital in his thoughts till he picked up a waft of formaldehyde and he changed his hypothesis to a laboratory. There was also a brief moment where he wondered why he was able to discern so many things about his surroundings.

“You are a very special man, my friend, and a very lucky man, too.” she went on. “You have been through a lot of things, suffered many pains. You experienced levels of torture that most mortals couldn’t even dream of enduring, but did it without batting an eyelash. Your own race had beaten and abused you as if you weren’t one of their own. They destroyed you, shaped you into a mold for their own desires. In the end, you overcame the odds they stacked against you and built yourself into something new, something that you wanted to be. You had wins and losses, but you didn’t let them move you from your goals an inch. Still, even though you won in the very end, you were still a part of that humanity that betrayed you in the first place and you died.”

A gloved hand reached down to caress the creases on his forehead. Her gray eyes were like stone and her finger was just as cold. “But, my friend, your persistence has been rewarded. The God of Life has given you its mercy.”

“Who…” His voice was much raspier than he remembered, as if he had never used his vocal cords before. “Who… ah…”

“Give yourself some time, friend.” Dr. Hisakawa had yet to move her hand from his head. “Those humans, they destroyed your body. The God of Life has granted you more than just your existence, but has given you back the humanity stolen from you along with so much more. They were not able to save your original body, but they crafted a new, refreshed avatar with which to walk the earth. Though unable to keep your original appearance to a tee, they wish to assure you that they saved all the most important parts of your previous self. Since there was nearly nothing left of your corpse and you had a previously… secluded life style, it was very difficult to get a detailed description of you physically, but they were proud to say that they captured ninety-nine point nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine percent of your consciousness in order to resurrect you. The minuscule amount that was not attained, they tell me, was unnecessary to your cause.”

He wished he could beg her to stop talking. It had only been a few seconds since he had woken up and he already felt like sleeping again. At that point the doctor had begun to practically pet his hair like he was a dog, but it did nothing to slow down her flow of information.

“It’s been decided that with your second chance, you will be able to live as you wish. In your previous life, it was your perception of your surroundings that held you back the most, so the God of Life has allowed you a free mind and a free conscience to let you have new experiences. They felt that you hadn’t had enough fun and happiness before, so they’ve decided to give you every available chance to see the world from a new angle. Of course, there will be many holes in your memories, but that just leaves more room to make even better ones! Do you have any questions you would like to ask before we release you back into your world?”

The machine sounds around him had become deafening. He suddenly felt weak, undeniably small. His voice was dying in his throat, but his thoughts were slipping faster. There was too much information flying at him, his head hurt.

“I… I…” he gasped out at last.

Dr. Hisakawa tilted her head down to him so that a glare hit her glasses hiding her eyes. “Ask quickly, the drugs we’ve administered will put you under for transport soon.”

“I… I… Who… What… What’s my name?”

She gave a knowing smile as his eyes closed and leaned down to whisper into his ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a thing now. No regrets, honestly. I have no idea if I'll update this often but it's been really therapeutic trying to figure a way to make a satisfying happy ending au without destroying what the canon's about. I hope you enjoyed the prologue and if you think it's worth continuing, let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

He woke up in an uncomfortable bed with scratchy sheets against his naked skin. Just like when he went under, his hearing was assaulted by loud beeps and buzzes from every angle around him, only this time, it felt a thousand times more intolerable. The room he was in was much different from his starting point though. The walls were painted an eggshell color and the floors were dark wood. It had a certain warmth to it that a hospital didn’t. Through tired eyes he could see tubes and wires attached all over his body. They were uncomfortable and his muffled mind wanted them gone.

“H-Hey wait!” A voice cried out as he started to tear away the chords. The screen door came open quickly as a man with a purple sweater and a clipboard rushed in. The man was on the older end of twenty with heavy lines under his eyes, deep brown hair, and thick stubble. He didn’t look particularly strong, but the new comer subdued his efforts to sit up by pushing his hand back before reattaching his wires. “Ugh. You knocked out you’re IV. I don’t want to have to tie you down, but I gotta put it back in.”

“Mmmm,” he moaned loudly, hoping it would be taken as a ‘no’.

“I’ll take that as an ‘a okay’!” the man said. He grabbed a bottle of antiseptic from a shelf and quickly put some on a scrap of gauze. Sitting down on the side of the bed, he reached over his patient and held down his one arm while replacing the IV in his other one handed. “You’re pretty energetic for a near dead guy, ya know? A few hours ago, I was considering calling a coroner for you. Someone found you laying in the middle of an alleyway downtown and dragged your sorry ass here. No broken bones or anything too bad, but there were plenty of drugs in your system. It was mostly vecronium, but there was some ketamine and even some propofol mixed in there. You’re lucky the dose wasn’t much higher, or you’d be very very dead.

“Oh before I forget.” He gripped his hand in a pseudo-handshake once the IV was in placed. “I’m Dr. Koroyuri Tsubaki. I own and operate this clinic.”

“Clin…?” he blinked slowly.

Dr. Kotsuba laughed. “Yup, yup! I imagine you’re rather out of it, but could I get some of your basic info? What’s your name?”

He took a heavy breath. His mind felt like mush, but a memory from the Hisakawa’s lab flooded his mind and for once in a while he was positive of something.

“My name is… Koro,” he said. “My name is Koro.”

“Really?! But that’s my name!” The doctor waited for a laugh that didn’t come. “Oh, cut me some slack here. It’s not often I get to do stand up for a corpse. Just trying to bring a little levity. Not a whole lot of it left around her, so don’t go around killing what’s left.” He sighed. “Okay, okay. So your name is Koro. Got a last name?”

“I don’t… think so?”

“You ‘don’t think so’?” Dr. Kotsuba picked up his clipboard from the side table and clicked his pen. “You mean you don’t know your last name? Okay, that’s fine. I’m sure it’ll come to you at some point. Don’t suppose you can think of anyone I can call for you? Or maybe where you’re from?”

Koro had an itch on the side of his nose, but felt that the doctor might tackle him again if he moved. “No clue. Sorry.” For some reason, a smile slipped on to his face. It felt wrong, unnecessary, oddly practiced and he didn’t know where it had come from. He wasn’t amused nor humored, but for some reason, it seemed to make one rise up on Dr. Kotsuba’s face.

“It’s all right,” he said. “We don’t have the equipment here to check for any neurological damage, but I didn’t find any signs of a concussion or anything like that. You should be okay. Can you recall anything other than your first name? Maybe your age or anything like that? Maybe your birthday?”

“Birthday…” A twinge, a feeling followed. It was like before, in the lab, when he felt something from the scientific smells. Now it was a bit clearer though. There was a ringing in his ear, a voice telling him something. It wasn’t his own, it was softer. It felt like someone was running their hands through his hair, whispering into his ear. “March. My birthday is in March.”

Dr. Kotsuba gave him a weird look but only shrugged. “Hmm, okay. That’s some progress I guess. Let’s get medical while I’m asking questions. Are you in any pain? Any dizziness? Nausea?”

“No, I think I’m okay,” he said. “You said someone found me in an alley?”

“Yup! You were passed out behind a dumpster, completely naked. There were no signs of any assault, so I didn’t bother sending out for anything tests or kits, but I did a few blood tests and, like I mentioned before, you had enough drugs in you to knock out an elephant. A homeless man found you and carried you here in the middle of the night. That was three days ago and you haven’t moved till now.” Dr. Kotsuba adjusted the pair of plastic black glasses up onto his face. “I have to ask you a question. Since this is a free, public clinic, I need to know if you were involved in any… illegal matters prior to your accident?”

“Not that I know of.” Koro shifted.

Kotsuba laughed a little to himself. “As I think about it, if you _were_ a criminal or something, would you even know? You hardly know who you are. It doesn’t matter though. You certainly don’t seem like a hardened killer. Heh, you probably just got caught by some goons on the street.” He patted his patient’s leg and stood up. “Oh well, I’m glad we could have this talk, but I’ll let you get some rest now. Maybe after you sleep for a while, you’ll remember something.”

Koro nodded slowly, too tired to argue. Before they could say anything else, a young woman walked into the room. She wore a light blue uniform shirt with gray scrub pants. Her black hair was worn down to her shoulders, her bangs trimmed cleanly. The woman looked tired, but a cheerful smile still graced her face.

“Sorry to intrude, Kotsuba-senpai,” she said. “But Yokoyama-kun is insisting on leaving again. Could you help me settle him back down?”

The doctor sighed mostly to himself, but nodded anyway. “Sure, sure. I’ll read him the procedure list again, use some fancy words, maybe flash some pictures of a couple nasty infections. Think that’ll work?”

“Please try not to scare him.” The woman giggled nonetheless.

“No promises.” Kotsuba turned back to Koro. “You get some sleep. I’ll be back after I help out Kanzaki-san, okay? I can’t give you much in the way of pain killers due to all of the stuff you were on before, but if you start to feel any pain, call for me and I’ll give you something light.”

“Thanks, doc,” he could feel his mind slipping already. He knew he had just woken up, but his eyes were starting to droop like he hadn’t slept in years. Everything was fuzzy and his limbs were heavy. Before he blacked out, Kanzaki grabbed the doctor by his shoulder.

“Who is that man?” she asked.

Kotsuba shrugged. “He’s the patient I was telling you about before. Someone brought him here three days ago naked and unresponsive. I ran a drug test and found he’d been nailed with at least three different types of surgical grade pain killers. Honestly it’s a miracle he was breathing on his own. He just woke up and the only thing he can remember is his name and the month he was born.”

“He has no idea who he is then?”

“I’m planning on calling some guys down at the police precinct to run a blood sample through the system,” he said. “Maybe even some fingerprints if they’ll let me.”

Koro didn’t think they knew he was still awake, so he kept his eyes shut tightly as the woman approached his bed. Even with his eyes closed, he could feel her presence beside him and the doctor’s nearing the other side.

“It’s weird but…” Kanzaki said, “He seems really familiar.”

“Can you identify him?” A rush of air over him told Koro a clipboard was being passed.

The woman shook her head. “No, not really. It’s just that I heard you talking to him and his voice sounded a lot like someone I used to know. But it doesn’t matter, this couldn’t possibly be him.”

“Why not?” Kotsuba laughed a little quietly. “Stranger things have happened. What kind of reunion we talking? A long lost sibling? An abandoned lover?”

“A dead teacher.” There was a pause before he heard the sound of shoe soles moving away. “It’s fine. It was a long time ago, senpai. You don’t need to apologize. It’s just that heard him talking and they sounded exactly the same. It took me back for a second.” Another pause. “We should really go take care of Yokoyama-kun. Here take your clip-“ There was a skid but no fall. Kanzaki must have stopped dead in her tracks. The doctor at his side went to her quickly, leaving Koro an opportunity to see through his eye lashes.

“K-‘Koro’?” she looked like she was about to stop breathing. “His name’s _Koro_?”

“That’s what he said. Yeah?” The doctor made a face screaming with confusion. “What does that mean?”

“It’s…” The nurse stared at the man laying the bed, hopefully unaware that he was staring back. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was slacked open. Looking at her closely now, there was something about this woman that felt familiar. Her shock, her fear; it left a strange pain in his heart. For no fathomable reason, he felt bad for startling her. Koro had no idea who she was. He wasn’t even sure _why_ she was afraid of him, but the idea that he had caused this random woman any form of discomfort. It was a worrying emotion to say the least.

“It’s nothing.” Kanzaki turned on the balls of her feet and rushed out of the room. As Kotsuba went after her, Koro finally lost against his mind and fell asleep, wondering what exactly had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will come in spurts, but I may work towards a more weekly schedule later on.


End file.
